Christ Is Born!
St. Gregory the Theologian
Feast of the Nativity according to the Flesh of our Lord, God & Savior Jesus ChristAnno Domini 2019, December 25
CHRIST IS BORN, give glory; Christ is from the heavens, go to meet Him; Christ is on earth, rise up. “Sing to the Lord, all the earth” (Ps. 92:1), and, to say both together, “Let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice” (Ps. 96:11), for the Heavenly One is now earthly. Christ is in the flesh, exult with trembling and joy; trembling because of sin, joy because of hope…. Again the darkness is dissolved, again the light is established (Gen. 1:3-4), again Egypt is punished by darkness (Ex. 10:11), again Israel is illumined by a pillar (Ex. 13:21). Let the people sitting in the darkness of ignorance see a great light of knowledge. “The old things have passed; behold, all things have become new” (2 Cor. 5:17). The letter withdraws, the spirit advances; the shadows have been surpassed, the truth has entered after them. Melchizedek is completed, the Motherless One becomes fatherless; He was motherless first, fatherless second (Heb. 7:3). The laws of nature are dissolved. The world above must be filled [cf. St. Maximus the Confessor, Ambiguum
31].
Christ commands, let us not resist. “All nations, clap your hands” (Ps. 47:1), “for to us a Child is born, and to us a Son is given, the power is on His shoulder,” for He is lifted up along with the Cross [cf. St. Maximus the Confessor, Ambiguum
32], and He is called by the name “angel of great counsel,” that of the Father (Is. 9:6). Let John proclaim, “Prepare the way of the Lord” (Mt. 3:3). I myself will proclaim the power of this day. The Fleshless One takes flesh, the Word is made dense
[cf. St. Maximus the Confessor, Ambiguum
33], the Invisible One is seen, the Impalpable One is touched, the Timeless One makes a beginning, the Son of God becomes Son of Man, “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and for the ages” (Heb. 13:8)….This is our festival, this is the feast we celebrate today, in which God comes to live with human beings, that we may journey toward God, or return (for to speak thus is more exact), that laying aside the old human being we may be clothed with the new, and that as in Adam we have died so we may live in Christ, being born with Christ and crucified with Him, being buried with Him and rising with Him…Now welcome for me His conception and leap for joy, if not indeed like John in the womb (Lk. 1:41), then like David when the ark came to rest (2 Sam. 6:14) [cf. St. Maximus the Confessor, Ambiguum
37]. Be awed at the census list through which you have been recorded in heaven, and revere the birth through which you have been released from the bonds of birth, and honor little Bethlehem, which has brought you back to paradise, and bow before the manger through which you who were without reason have been fed by the Word. Know, like the ox, your owner—Isaiah exhorts you (Is. 1:3)—and like the ass, know your master’s crib, whether you are among those who are pure and under the law and chew the cud of the Word and are prepared for sacrifice, or whether up to now you are among the impure and unfit for food or sacrifice and belong to the Gentiles. Run after the star, and bring gifts with the Magi, gold and frankincense and myrrh, as to a king and a God and one dead for your sake. With the shepherds give glory, with the angels sing hymns, with the archangels dance. Let there be a common celebration of the heavenly and earthly powers. For I am persuaded that they rejoice and celebrate together today, if indeed they love humankind and love God, just as David represents them ascending with Christ after his Passion as they come to meet him and exhort each other to lift up the gates (Ps. 24:7-10).
~St Gregory the Theologian, Oration 38 on the Nativity
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